Matrix Management Magazine

Restructuring is painful and often ineffective, yet organizations keep restructuring every few years. The reason this keeps happening is because moving around boxes on the org chart does not solve the problems it aims to solve. So leaders try again, using another approach or perhaps, reverting to the previous structure. That doesn't work either, and restructuring is back on the books a few years later. Clearly, there's a need to look at restructuring from a new angle.

Executive coaching has been known to help entrepreneurs get their companies off the ground as well as support leaders stepping into new and challenging roles. But did you know that executive coaching can also help an organizational transformation initiative to take hold and thrive?

Here are three recommendations to help you get this process started by partnering with an executive coach.

Several recent studies have indicated that collaboration can hurt your organization and your best people, the most insightful and capable, the best team players. The truth, though, is that collaboration is typically misunderstood and improperly applied. So instead of blaming this problem on collaboration, leaders need to address the real causes of this situation.

As leaders, we are wired to be efficient, to not spin our wheels, and not waste resources. Working with others can sometimes get complicated and frustrating - far from efficient. Consensus, adoption, team participation may sound like a leader's worst nightmare, but here are our thoughts on how leading your team collaboratively is actually the way to achieve efficiency.

Nobody likes to be bossed around. Yet a strong boss who is able to direct the actions of others is the type of leader organizations often find desirable as their processes and relationships become more complex. Traditional hierarchy is often seen as the only solution to managing complexity. Lines of communication and command are clear. Roles are clear. Decision-making is firmly in the hands of a boss. Team members follow the boss's lead. In theory, this seems straightforward but it’s actually much more complicated.

Planning often gets a bad rap. It’s boring. It takes too long. It makes things sound too scary, or it’s never realistic enough to make it worth the effort… So how do we create plans that make our work easier, instead of just taking up time?

A colleague was driving to meet with a new client and she was late. She’d taken a wrong turn and called me for guidance. I took out my phone and opened the map application. After I typed in the destination address, I asked, “Where are you?”

Do your team members struggle to work together? Do your team leaders struggle to bring high-performing teams together to deliver team outcomes? Do team members succeed at fulfilling their individual assignments, but projects still fail?